IT Day From Hell, Meet Website Day From Hell!
Well, it's NEVER a good sign when someone phones me first thing in the morning at home to tell me they have a dead computer -- which Ashley did today. So even though I'd told Donn I wouldn't need him today, I had to call him and ask him to come in as soon as he possibly could manage.
This was another hard-to-get-up-and-get-ready day, as it was!
Cute aside: Colin Kitty just came in to our home office carrying one of his feather toys in his mouth. It was a bell on one end, so it jingles as he packs it around. Anyway, it just dropped it right by my foot, sweet boy!
I got in the office and told Ashley that Donn would be there shortly. Then I was checking Rich's issue: What to do when Cloudmark DesktopOne stops running. I realized his computer seemed to be running slow, so I figured I'd have Donn check that out, too. Then I showed Rich how to stop and restart his SPAM blocking software.
Yeah, yeah. That was NOT included in my lengthy written explanation of how to use Cloudmark DesktopOne -- so I need to add to the original text and send out another email (sigh). Plus add it to the How To website. I didn't even BEGIN to get near to doing THAT today.
Marilyn had a 9:00 phone meeting, so Rich and I walked over to Starbucks to get much-needed coffee!
Soon it was time for Staff meeting. Donn came in and started working on the 'bad' computer. I took several notes about things that needed to be done at the website during Staff meeting.
I ate an yogurt before going in to that meeting (I wanted to be able to take my pills on time for a change!). And we had goodies during Staff meeting to celebrate Katie's birthday from last week. I had one little cake, plus fruit.
Christie grabbed me directly after Staff meeting to tell me her computer was running slow and she was doing constant reboots. I checked with Donn and told him I had two additional tasks for him to do when he finished with Ashley's computer. Ashley started working using Tanya's login on her computer...
Donn discovers that Ashley's computer has a dead motherboard. Time to pull a spare from upstairs and put it on the floor! He and I discuss issues with adding it to the Server and plan a workaround.
I clean out Katrina's space -- where her replacement will be sitting. I talk to Marilyn: She didn't have her 9:00 phone meeting, as the woman is still down sick.
I have a pile of various website changes to tackle. This includes the RoZone page, which quite a complicated one: It pulls data from a variety of other sources!
I'm on the phone and emailing with Carol about the changes for the RoZone page. This goes on for ages. I discuss with Christine what we'll need to do to get it done.
I fix Katie's Cloudmark DesktopOne issue -- she has a 'missing' Spam folder. We find it and get her running again.
Donn can't resolve the issue with adding the 'new' computer to the Server. This used to happen all the time back in the old building (prior to 2010, in other words). But I've only seen something like it once since the new building and the new Small Business Server software! Anyway, we discuss it. This is a Server error -- not a machine error. He'll need to reformat the machine and start from scratch. That's TWO machines down!
We move to one of the seasonal employee machines. People are helping move equipment, as Donn shouldn't be moving stuff -- but he still does a couple of times!
We can't use the one machine because it's Win XP -- and I now want Ashley to be on Win7. Eventually Donn gets a machine in place and Profiles it (hours later). Then he moves to checking out both Rich and Christie's computers for speed.
Now he has computers to take home and check out. Plus he has all that random equipment from cleaning the IT Room on Saturday to get rid of. Steven helps him to haul it to his car...
I've been working on multiple webpages: The RoZone page, one of the Concert pages, 'hiding' multiple other concert pages (for now), tweaking the Clown Corps page (we extended the deadline for clowns to apply), tweaking the Golf page and so on.
Marilyn is tweaking out her PowerPoint for her speaking engagement (Rich will go with her to that). Jeff is out on the road visiting Pendleton about the Mini Float program.
I plan to walk out in the rain (and cold) to grab lunch. Meanwhile, other website stuff keeps popping up.
Christine and I decide I should rename the Career page (!!!) back to the Employment page -- so I do that! Then I have to change the navigation so I tweak the menu.
I've got on my hooded blue jacket and I have a low blood sugar incident!!! Now I'm eating things to turn it around. I'm too shaky to walk out to get food until I get this under control...
Finally I'm good enough to head out into the rain. I walk to McDonald's and get a couple of sandwiches. I eat one there, and stick the other in my pocket. Then I go to 7 Eleven and get a big bottle of pop, before walking back to the office.
Marilyn had a seminar directly after her speaking engagement. So Rich is back, she's still gone. I stick the second sandwich on her desk for her. She's told me she doesn't want anything for lunch, but she ate it when she returned. (smile)
I'm upstairs still working on the website when the rest of the staff comes up to the upstairs conference room to have the Creative Team meeting. Marilyn joins them sometime after they've already started.
I almost forgot! During Staff meeting it came up that Roosevelt High School didn't have their entry in for the Starlight Parade. So I get in the mix. I email, then phone Mike V. about it. He and I go back and forth the rest of the day...
Marilyn and I head directly to Freddies to shop on the way home. We need to pick up a few things, including something for dinner. I really HATE shopping at Fred Meyer since the remodel. I can't find a damn thing! Suddenly I discover that what used to be called the Hispanic section is not called that now. I'm hunting and hunting. I accidentally come across the new department (I can't even remember what they're calling it now -- Latin American, I think). I'm not the only person saying out loud how they hate the store, believe me!
We get home around 7:00 and I sit for several minutes after unpacking the groceries. Once I get my second wind, I fix dinner. I open a fresh can of refried beans to mix in with the leftover beans (bean starter) from the night before last. And I fix the shells we just bought and pop them in the oven. So Marilyn and I ate refried bean tacos again tonight (we had them Sunday night).
After dinner I fixed us popcorn and we each had a well-earned beer!
We started watching the movie "Carol." I just gave up seeing the end part way through. I was so damn tired I had to go take a nap! We got it On Demand. I wonder if we'll have it long enough for me to see the end? We have an event tomorrow night...
I phoned June and Jim's house after dinner (before popcorn) to check on them. Jim's much better! But June isn't good. She saw the doctor yesterday and got new pills, but Jim said they don't seem to be helping her. She's suffering from her legs and had trouble sleeping last night. So she was in bed when I called, and I couldn't speak to her.
Jim is going to take me to my dental appointment tomorrow at noon...
Fitbit update: Marilyn got 7,871 steps today, and I got 7,161.
Tomorrow night is the Newsmakers of the Year Awards Banquet that the Royal Rosarians host annually. Marilyn added Christine and me to attend (it's a uniform event). That's assuming Christine will come home here to get me after my dental appointment.
The timing is tight. Christine and I will go directly to the Metro princess announcement (for the two Metro girls) that takes place at 2:00 p.m. So I go to the dentist at noon. It's done by 1:00-ish. Jim takes me home. Christine comes to get me and take me back to the office. We go across the street for the announcement.
Then I'll have a little time to WORK in the office before we go to the dinner tomorrow night. I've never been before, so I'm actually looking forward to it. Marilyn has attended it many, many times over the years.
Well, I need to wash my hair before heading to bed! I feel like I'm forgetting stuff today, if you can believe THAT!
I did speak to sister Sue today at one point. And I looked at Freddies for the game I wanted to get her. Mom used to have those little hand-held electronic games that kept her busy when she was in nursing homes and the hospital. I know Sue would enjoy the poker one -- if I can find one! Fred Meyer didn't have any. But I saw online that Walmart should -- if we ever manage to get there. I'm the one stalling, by the way! Marilyn has suggested we go over and over and over again. But I've been too tired to think of all that walking...
If I plan to get to bed, I'd better get my damn hair washed NOW!
Sleep well, dear friends!
This was another hard-to-get-up-and-get-ready day, as it was!
Cute aside: Colin Kitty just came in to our home office carrying one of his feather toys in his mouth. It was a bell on one end, so it jingles as he packs it around. Anyway, it just dropped it right by my foot, sweet boy!
I got in the office and told Ashley that Donn would be there shortly. Then I was checking Rich's issue: What to do when Cloudmark DesktopOne stops running. I realized his computer seemed to be running slow, so I figured I'd have Donn check that out, too. Then I showed Rich how to stop and restart his SPAM blocking software.
Yeah, yeah. That was NOT included in my lengthy written explanation of how to use Cloudmark DesktopOne -- so I need to add to the original text and send out another email (sigh). Plus add it to the How To website. I didn't even BEGIN to get near to doing THAT today.
Marilyn had a 9:00 phone meeting, so Rich and I walked over to Starbucks to get much-needed coffee!
Soon it was time for Staff meeting. Donn came in and started working on the 'bad' computer. I took several notes about things that needed to be done at the website during Staff meeting.
I ate an yogurt before going in to that meeting (I wanted to be able to take my pills on time for a change!). And we had goodies during Staff meeting to celebrate Katie's birthday from last week. I had one little cake, plus fruit.
Christie grabbed me directly after Staff meeting to tell me her computer was running slow and she was doing constant reboots. I checked with Donn and told him I had two additional tasks for him to do when he finished with Ashley's computer. Ashley started working using Tanya's login on her computer...
Donn discovers that Ashley's computer has a dead motherboard. Time to pull a spare from upstairs and put it on the floor! He and I discuss issues with adding it to the Server and plan a workaround.
I clean out Katrina's space -- where her replacement will be sitting. I talk to Marilyn: She didn't have her 9:00 phone meeting, as the woman is still down sick.
I have a pile of various website changes to tackle. This includes the RoZone page, which quite a complicated one: It pulls data from a variety of other sources!
I'm on the phone and emailing with Carol about the changes for the RoZone page. This goes on for ages. I discuss with Christine what we'll need to do to get it done.
I fix Katie's Cloudmark DesktopOne issue -- she has a 'missing' Spam folder. We find it and get her running again.
Donn can't resolve the issue with adding the 'new' computer to the Server. This used to happen all the time back in the old building (prior to 2010, in other words). But I've only seen something like it once since the new building and the new Small Business Server software! Anyway, we discuss it. This is a Server error -- not a machine error. He'll need to reformat the machine and start from scratch. That's TWO machines down!
We move to one of the seasonal employee machines. People are helping move equipment, as Donn shouldn't be moving stuff -- but he still does a couple of times!
We can't use the one machine because it's Win XP -- and I now want Ashley to be on Win7. Eventually Donn gets a machine in place and Profiles it (hours later). Then he moves to checking out both Rich and Christie's computers for speed.
Now he has computers to take home and check out. Plus he has all that random equipment from cleaning the IT Room on Saturday to get rid of. Steven helps him to haul it to his car...
I've been working on multiple webpages: The RoZone page, one of the Concert pages, 'hiding' multiple other concert pages (for now), tweaking the Clown Corps page (we extended the deadline for clowns to apply), tweaking the Golf page and so on.
Marilyn is tweaking out her PowerPoint for her speaking engagement (Rich will go with her to that). Jeff is out on the road visiting Pendleton about the Mini Float program.
I plan to walk out in the rain (and cold) to grab lunch. Meanwhile, other website stuff keeps popping up.
Christine and I decide I should rename the Career page (!!!) back to the Employment page -- so I do that! Then I have to change the navigation so I tweak the menu.
I've got on my hooded blue jacket and I have a low blood sugar incident!!! Now I'm eating things to turn it around. I'm too shaky to walk out to get food until I get this under control...
Finally I'm good enough to head out into the rain. I walk to McDonald's and get a couple of sandwiches. I eat one there, and stick the other in my pocket. Then I go to 7 Eleven and get a big bottle of pop, before walking back to the office.
Marilyn had a seminar directly after her speaking engagement. So Rich is back, she's still gone. I stick the second sandwich on her desk for her. She's told me she doesn't want anything for lunch, but she ate it when she returned. (smile)
I'm upstairs still working on the website when the rest of the staff comes up to the upstairs conference room to have the Creative Team meeting. Marilyn joins them sometime after they've already started.
I almost forgot! During Staff meeting it came up that Roosevelt High School didn't have their entry in for the Starlight Parade. So I get in the mix. I email, then phone Mike V. about it. He and I go back and forth the rest of the day...
Marilyn and I head directly to Freddies to shop on the way home. We need to pick up a few things, including something for dinner. I really HATE shopping at Fred Meyer since the remodel. I can't find a damn thing! Suddenly I discover that what used to be called the Hispanic section is not called that now. I'm hunting and hunting. I accidentally come across the new department (I can't even remember what they're calling it now -- Latin American, I think). I'm not the only person saying out loud how they hate the store, believe me!
We get home around 7:00 and I sit for several minutes after unpacking the groceries. Once I get my second wind, I fix dinner. I open a fresh can of refried beans to mix in with the leftover beans (bean starter) from the night before last. And I fix the shells we just bought and pop them in the oven. So Marilyn and I ate refried bean tacos again tonight (we had them Sunday night).
After dinner I fixed us popcorn and we each had a well-earned beer!
We started watching the movie "Carol." I just gave up seeing the end part way through. I was so damn tired I had to go take a nap! We got it On Demand. I wonder if we'll have it long enough for me to see the end? We have an event tomorrow night...
I phoned June and Jim's house after dinner (before popcorn) to check on them. Jim's much better! But June isn't good. She saw the doctor yesterday and got new pills, but Jim said they don't seem to be helping her. She's suffering from her legs and had trouble sleeping last night. So she was in bed when I called, and I couldn't speak to her.
Jim is going to take me to my dental appointment tomorrow at noon...
Fitbit update: Marilyn got 7,871 steps today, and I got 7,161.
Tomorrow night is the Newsmakers of the Year Awards Banquet that the Royal Rosarians host annually. Marilyn added Christine and me to attend (it's a uniform event). That's assuming Christine will come home here to get me after my dental appointment.
The timing is tight. Christine and I will go directly to the Metro princess announcement (for the two Metro girls) that takes place at 2:00 p.m. So I go to the dentist at noon. It's done by 1:00-ish. Jim takes me home. Christine comes to get me and take me back to the office. We go across the street for the announcement.
Then I'll have a little time to WORK in the office before we go to the dinner tomorrow night. I've never been before, so I'm actually looking forward to it. Marilyn has attended it many, many times over the years.
Well, I need to wash my hair before heading to bed! I feel like I'm forgetting stuff today, if you can believe THAT!
I did speak to sister Sue today at one point. And I looked at Freddies for the game I wanted to get her. Mom used to have those little hand-held electronic games that kept her busy when she was in nursing homes and the hospital. I know Sue would enjoy the poker one -- if I can find one! Fred Meyer didn't have any. But I saw online that Walmart should -- if we ever manage to get there. I'm the one stalling, by the way! Marilyn has suggested we go over and over and over again. But I've been too tired to think of all that walking...
If I plan to get to bed, I'd better get my damn hair washed NOW!
Sleep well, dear friends!